Sunday, February 16, 2020 A.D.—201878 Real Madrid -1 -131 (Intertops)
3 pm ET/12 am PT (beIN SPORTS, beIN SPORTS en Español, beIN SPORTS CONNECT, Fanatiz USA)—Real Madrid CF (15-7-1, 44 GF-14 GA, 52 points) will be fighting Barcelona (15-4-4, 49 points) for La Liga crown this Winter, well into the Spring and maybe down to the last week of the Spanish season, so this Matchweek 24 fixture vs 17th-place RC Celta de Vigo (4-9-11, 19 GF-32 GA) from Santiago Bernabéu Stadium (Mixto Hybrid Grass Technology) in Madrid
on Sunday has meaning for the 1st-place hosts. The Total here is 3o -125 with Real Madrid huge -400 Home chalks with Celta de Vigo +900 and a Draw priced at +450 in the Three-way marketplace (
Intertops).
Manager Zinedane Zidane and Real Madrid (16/1 to Win Champions League,
Westgate Las Vegas SuperBook)—who face Manchester City in Leg 1 of their
UEFA CL Round of 16 matchup on Wed. Feb. 26; RM +154, MC +144, DRAW +282; 3 -111,
Bookmaker) in Madrid—have been winning by playing great Defense this campaign with vets Sergio Ramos and Marcelo holding it down in front of GK Thibaut Courtois who is having his best season since leaving Atlético Madrid for West London and Chelsea and the EPL years ago. With Madrd having given up only 14 goals and the Célticos having only scored 19 times in 23 games, a Clean Sheet for the hosts is a likely scenario this weekend.
Looking at the lifetime series Trends, we see that Real Madrid has dominated Celta de Vigo at Home in Madrid, going
42-5-6 against them (160 GF-43 GA), with a massive +117 GD built up over the years. Los Blancos are 66-16-32 overall vs Celta (265 GF-148 GA) and have gone
unbeaten the L11 (11-1-0) against Celta de Vigo, outscoring them 40-11 along the way in La Liga play. Madrid has W4 straight, outscoring the Célticos
17-3 over that span.
So it’s a matter of scoring early on to try to take off the pressure for Karim Benzema, Eden Hazard and the Madridistas, who will be facing a club likely having problems manufacturing quality Shots on Target. Laying a Goal on the Handicap line and getting RM (2/3 to Win La Liga,
Westgate Las Vegas SuperBook; Barça 11/10) down and getting in early may save you 50 cents (incoming Real Madrid FRI-SUN weekend steam) for what looks like an easy winner from the European Soccer betting board. Very few Smartphone Apes will be betting the visitors or a Draw here. We live in age of obligatory facial hair and I am not giving in. Time to shave the rutabaga and then bitch about the 17 spots I missed in a few hours.
The Patriots deflated footballs and taped opponents to gain an edge and McGwire and Sosa and hundreds of others used Steroids to gain an edge and Manchester City bought as many studs as they could to gain an edge and the Astros stole opponent's signs to gain an edge but all Pete Rose did was bet on a team he was managing to try to win.
Teams should try to win. A manager would help, and almost expect, his team to win. The Patriots, Astros, Manchester City and Steroid Users all
knew they were getting an edge with their actions. Pete Rose did nothing different than any Manager not betting on his team would do, The time has come for an apology and his rightful induction into baseball's Hall Of Fame. Betting against your team and affecting a result is another story. MLB needs to grow up. The vendetta expiration date is here.
Valentine's Day is so great. Nothing like honoring two saints we know absolutely nothing about who lived in the 14th century or something by buying an overpriced big-ass 5-foot bunny—destined to be crying in a landfill in North Las Vegas in 2025 —and Chocolates that were made in China on a street corner from some Mexican with a payload of them in his American-made pickup truck bearing California license plates as he lives in Nevada. Holidays are so wonderful. We need more of these stupid things. Love is powerful. And invisible.
Real Madrid 3 Celta de Vigo 0